Ratatouille
Ratatouille is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Plot Remy is an idealistic and ambitious young rat, gifted with highly developed senses of taste and smell. Inspired by his idol, the recently deceased chef Auguste Gusteau, Remy dreams of becoming a cook himself. When an old French woman discovers Remy's colony in her house and attempts to exterminate them with a shotgun, they are forced to flee, and Remy becomes separated from his family in the panic. He ends up in the sewers of Paris and eventually finds himself at a skylight overlooking the kitchen of Gusteau's restaurant. As Remy watches through the window, a young man named Alfredo Linguini is hired as a garbage boy by Skinner, the restaurant's current owner and Gusteau's former sous-chef. When Linguini spills a pot of soup and attempts to recreate it, Remy sees that he is ruining it, and fixes his mistakes. Linguini catches Remy, but hides him when he is then confronted by Skinner for tampering with the soup. As the two argue, the soup is accidentally served and proves to be a success. The staff convinces Skinner to retain Linguini, who is assumed to be the soup's creator. When Skinner catches Remy attempting to escape, he orders Linguini to kill the rat, but Linguini discovers Remy's intelligence and decides to keep him instead. On Linguini's first day as a chef, he and Remy find a way to communicate: Remy guides Linguini like a marionette by pulling on his hair while hidden under Linguini's toque. Skinner assigns Colette Tatou, the staff's only female chef, to train his new cook. Suspicious, Skinner learns that Linguini is Gusteau's illegitimate son and the rightful owner of the restaurant. Remy discovers the evidence of Linguini's inheritance and, after eluding Skinner, gives it to Linguini, who deposes Skinner as owner. The restaurant continues to thrive, as all of Remy's recipes become immediate hits. A romance develops between Linguini and Colette, and Remy begins to feel left out. Remy finds that his clan has come to Paris as well, and is taken to their new lair, but his father Django's attempt to rid his son of his admiration for humans fails and Remy leaves. France's top restaurant critic, Anton Ego, whose previous negative review cost Gusteau's one of its stars and caused Gusteau's death, announces he will dine at the restaurant the following evening. That night, Remy and Linguini have a heated argument. Remy leads his clan to raid the restaurant's pantries in retaliation, but Linguini catches them and drives them out. Having discovered Remy's skills, Skinner captures him in an attempt to use him to create a line of frozen foods. However, Remy is freed by Django and his brother Emile. He returns to the restaurant to find Linguini, who has been unable to cook without him. Linguini apologizes and reveals the truth to the staff, but they all leave in absolute disbelief. Colette later returns after recalling Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook." Django arrives with the rest of the clan, offering to help after seeing his son's determination. Remy has the rats cook, while Linguini waits tables. For Ego and Skinner, Remy creates a variation of ratatouille, confit byaldi, which reminds an astonished Ego of his own mother's cooking. During the meal, the rats caught and tied up Skinner and a health inspector to prevent them from revealing the rats' involvement in the cooking. When Ego requests to see the chef, Linguini and Colette make him wait until the rest of the diners have left before introducing Remy. Ego is stunned and leaves the restaurant, deep in thought. He writes a positive and thoughtful review for the newspaper the next day, stating that Gusteau's chef is "nothing less than the finest chef in France." Linguini and Remy decide to release Skinner and the health inspector, however; thus, despite receiving a good review, Gusteau's is forced into closure due to the presence of the rats violating health code regulations, and Ego loses his job and his credibility as a critic. Luckily, Ego funds (and frequents for Remy's cooking) a popular new bistro, La Ratatouille, created and run by Remy, Linguini, and Colette. The rats settle into their new home in the bistro's roof. Cast * Patton Oswalt as Remy, a rat with heightened senses of taste and smell, enabling a talent and desire for cooking. Director Brad Bird chose Oswalt after hearing his food-related comedy routine.4 * Ian Holm as Chef Skinner, a diminutive chef and owner of Auguste Gusteau's restaurant. Since Gusteau's death, Skinner has used the Gusteau name to market a line of cheap microwaveable meals. Skinner's behavior, diminutive size, and body language are loosely based on Louis de Funès.5 * Lou Romano as Alfredo Linguini, the son of Auguste Gusteau and Renata Linguini. * Brad Garrett as Auguste Gusteau (whose first and last names are anagrams of each other). Many reviewers believe that Gusteau is inspired by real-life chef Bernard Loiseau, who committed suicide after media speculation that his flagship restaurant, La Côte d'Or, was going to be downgraded from three Michelin stars to two.6 La Côte d'Or was one of the restaurants visited by Brad Bird and others in France.7 * Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou, Gusteau's chef de partie, inspired by French chef Hélène Darroze.89 * Brian Dennehy as Django10, Remy and Emile's father, and the leader of the rats. * Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, a restaurant critic. His appearance was modeled after Louis Jouvet.11 * Peter Sohn as Emile, Remy's gluttonous older brother. * Will Arnett as Horst, Skinner's German sous chef. * Julius Callahan as Lalo, Gusteau's saucier and poissonnier. Callahan also voices François, the advertising executive handling the marketing of Gusteau's microwaveable products. * James Remar as Larousse, Gusteau's garde manger. * John Ratzenberger as Mustafa, Gusteau's chef de salle. * Teddy Newton as Talon Labarthe, Skinner's lawyer. * Tony Fucile as Pompidou, Gusteau's patissier. Fucile also voices Nadar Lessard, a health inspector employed by Skinner. * Jake Steinfeld as Git, a former lab rat and member of Django's colony. * Brad Bird as Ambrister Minion, Anton Ego's butler. * Stéphane Roux as the narrator of the cooking channel. * Thomas Keller as a dining patron who asks "what's new" Critical Reception The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 96% approval rating with an average rating of 8.5/10 based on 246 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Fast-paced and stunningly animated, Ratatouille adds another delightfully entertaining entry—and a rather unlikely hero—to the Pixar canon."57 Metacritic, another review aggregator website which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 96 out of 100 based on 37 reviews,58 the highest of any Pixar film59 and the twenty-first highest rated film on the site. Gallery Trivia Category:Pixar Films